Friday, November 17, 2017

A HELL OF A WAY TO SELL ICE CREAM


To find out more about exactly what the Hell is going on in this Kubrickean dystopic nightmare of an advertisement (for the very real Halo Top brand of low cal ice cream), check out this CNET article.

KUBRICK NEWS IN BRIEF ~ NOV 17, 2017

Bloody Disgusting reports on a new line of vinyl collectibles being put out by Funko featuring four figurines based on characters from The Shining. My favorite? Frozen Jack! Find out more at the link!

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This summer, in advance of a concert given in Ottawa featuring some of the most iconic pieces of music used in Kubrick's films, the Ottawa Citizen newspaper interviewed our ubiquitous friend and Kubrick estate spokesman Jan Harlan, and even though the concert is long done with, the interview is well worth revisiting. It begins:
Q: What was Stanley Kubrick’s taste in music like? What enthusiasm did he have for music outside of the role that it played in his films?
A: As a young man he was a drummer in a band. He certainly knew how to distinguish — music as a possible pillar to support the structure of a film is one thing, music for pure enjoyment is another. Two great works he loved very much were never considered for one of his films: The Brahms Requiem and the Schubert Quintet in C.

If that's the kind of behind the scenes Kubrickeana that you just can't get enough of, then by all means keep on reading.

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In this article about the BBC's 100 Best Comedies of All Time (in which Kubrick's Strangelove comes in 2nd after Wilder's Some Like It Hot), Toronto Star movie critic Peter Howell discusses the ways in which movie critics frequently (and unfairly, in his opinion) get a bad rap when it comes to their capacity to appreciate comedy. It's worth checking out for Howell's brief insights into the nature of the laughs generated by Kubrick's jet black satire.

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The title of this Gizmodo article says it all: These Original Artworks From the Making of 2001: A Space Odyssey Are Spectacular.

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With the successful release in recent months of IT in theaters and Gerald's Game on Netflix, certain media have taken to discussing what it takes to make a truly great cinematic adaptation of Stephen King's writing, with Kubrick's The Shining frequently popping up as an example of said greatness (and, occasionally, as a failure, but that's mostly from King himself). Scott Tobias' piece for the Hamilton Spectator, titled The Secrets to Making a Great Stephen King Adaptation is a pretty good example of the genre.

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So apparently someone made an incredibly cool game not-so-loosely based on Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, and apparently, according to this stellar review at least, it's fucking amazing. It's called 2000:1 (Two Thousand to One): A Space Felony, or: How I Came to Value My Life and MURDER Mercilessly. Can you beat that for a Kubrickean title!? Nope. You can't. Check out this video preview, then visit the links above for more information about gameplay, etc. This thing looks good enough to drag me back into gaming, which is something I haven't indulged in for almost a decade now.


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Those of you who are fascinated by Kubrick's early work as a "boy wonder" photographer for LOOK Magazine are definitely going to want to check out Philippe D. Mather’s recent book Stanley Kubrick at LOOK Magazine: Authorship and Genre in Photojournalism and Film. It features recently uncovered images from 1946, when Kubrick was only 16, which portray his beloved New York as a paradoxical place of beauty and ugliness, darkness and light.

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Were you aware that, in 2001: A Space Odyssey, during the scene where Dave Bowman and the HAL 9000 computer play a friendly game of chess... HAL appears to cheat? Of course, if you're reading this blog, it's more than likely that you ARE aware of this fact. Furthermore, it's probably more than likely that you're also aware of the myriad theories as to why Kubrick included this little tidbit in his film. Just in case you're not already fully aware of the speculation surrounding this brief moment in 2001, SyFy.com lays it all out for you. They also provide a link to this delightful, new-to-me New York Review of Books article by Jeremy Bernstein--the guy who produced one of the best Kubrick interviews ever, and was smart enough to record it and KEEP his recording--about precisely how clever Kubrick could get when it came to chess.

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And, finally for this edition of KNIB, we say goodbye to character actor Barry Dennen, who played Bill Watson in Kubrick's version of The Shining, but who will most likely be better remembered for his passionate and iconic portrayal of Pontius Pilate, both on Broadway and in the film version of Jesus Christ Superstar. He was 79 years old.

Saturday, September 30, 2017

KUBRICK NEWS IN BRIEF ~ SEPT 30, 2017


Full Metal Jacket turned 30 years old this summer. Commemorate the milestone by reading this excellent Birth/Movies/Death retrospective by Jacob Knight. And dig that crazy artwork, man!

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Once you're done checking out the above article, you should also give this awesome audio retrospective on the Task&Purpose podcast a listen. Entitled "To the Everlasting Glory of Full Metal Jacket", this podcast is created by, and geared towards, veterans and currently serving members of the American military, which makes for a great perspective on this cinematic masterpiece.



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And finally re: FMJ, check out this Collider article in which Matthew Modine discusses two major scenes that were cut from the final version of the film, and this CinemaBlend article about a scene inspired by R.Lee Ermey's dirty poetry. Combine all of this with a fresh viewing of the flick, and you will have properly celebrated the 30th anniversary of Kubrick's most underrated flick, the immortal Full Metal Jacket.

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Here's a funny little thing to watch...


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In this Movie Pilot overview, Eric Hanson explores Kubrick's oeuvre in terms of his accomplishments as a translator of literature into cinema, and the various conflicts and controversies that have arisen from his relationships with many of the authors whose work he has adapted. This piece is, unfortunately, short and insubstantial. Hanson doesn't even address the extremely interesting history of Kubrick's relationships with Calder Willingham, Jim Thompson, Vladimir Nabokov, or Gustav Hasford! So please don't mistake me linking to this article as giving it my seal of approval. I do NOT. However, it does point future article writers towards what I believe could be a very intriguing topic for exploration. Who knows? I might just write such an article myself for this blog.

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This little video tells the viewer how to use (and get away with breaking) the 180 degrees rule.


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You know, when it comes to oddball ways directors have scraped together money for their projects, Kubrick hustling chess games to scam unwitting potzers out of their pocket change barely even qualifies, especially when compared with what Robert Rodriguez did to finance his films. But hey, it's Kubrick, so I suppose he makes the above-linked list based the quality of his oeuvre and the pull that the authors suspected including him would have on movie geeks, in terms of getting eyeballs directed towards their article. I guess their scam worked, seeing as they got my attention.

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During the course of researching and writing his book Reconstructing Strangelove, Inside Stanley Kubrick's Nightmare Comedy, author Mick Broderick uncovered a long hidden plan by Kubrick to relocate his entire family to Australia if ever it became obvious that a nuclear war was about to start... as well as the hilarious reason why Kubrick eventually gave up on his plans:
The American director had set up accounts, transferred funds, organised visas and investigated film projects in anticipation of his move. 
However, he cancelled when he discovered he would have to share a bathroom on the ship that would take him to Australia. 
“Famous for not flying, Stanley had bought tickets for the ocean liner. But when he found out he would have to share a bathroom the trip was off,” says Broderick. 
“The idea of spending months at sea sharing toilet space with complete strangers was intolerable; he would much rather face thermonuclear war.”
You know what, folks? If you don't think this qualifies as classic, Strangelove-level comedy in a Kubrick vein all on its own, I don't know what to tell you.

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Speaking of interesting books, Robert Koller's The Extraordinary Image: Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and the Reimagining of Cinema explores the obsessions of Hitchcock, Kubrick, and Welles, based on the ways in which they expanded the use of sound in cinema. Based on this lengthy, academically rigorous review, it looks very much worth checking out.

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Apparently, people are saying The Weekend's latest video, for a song called "Secrets", was influenced or inspired by Kubrick in some way. I'm not so sure about that, but you can be the judge. Here's the vid:


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Illustrator Brian Sanders offers a rare glimpse into Stanley Kubrick's creative process. Here's an example of the kind of illustrations you'll find at this link.

STILL TICKIN' - THE RETURN OF A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

An intriguing short-ish (43 minutes) documentary on the return to British theaters of Kubrick's Clockwork Orange, which the filmmaker had long withdrawn from the UK market for a variety of reasons. This one was new to me, even though it's from 2000. Well done!


INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR OF "KUBRICK'S GAME" NOVEL

When I first heard about Derek Taylor Kent's novel, Kubrick's Game, I have to admit to feeling a complicated mixture of curiosity, interest, and profound self-loathing. The curiosity and interest had obvious causes... I'm a life-long and devoted Kubrick fanatic, in love with most of his movies and fascinated by the minutia of his life's story (as chronicled in my early blog posts, Confessions of a Kubrick Nut, Parts One, Part Two, and Part Three in 3D). But whence this negativity? 

Most likely, it probably stemmed from the fact that I've long wanted to try writing a "Kubrick novel" of my own, and I've been too damn lazy and/or procrastination-bound to work up the gumption to actually DO IT, goddamn it. 

Anyway, I've recently heard good things about Kent's book, so I went ahead and ordered it. I'll write a review and publish it here as soon as I've read it, but in the meantime, enjoy this recent interview with Kent, published at BigShinyRobot.com. 

Here are the interview's pre-amble, followed by the first question and (surprising to me!) answer:

Sometimes a book hits all your interests all at once, and there's really nothing else quite like it out there. The key to Kubrick's Game is that it is filled with startling plot twists, and almost every chapter ends with a 'cliffhanger,' so you have to keep reading to see what will happen next. On the whole, the story is compelling and interesting, despite my workman-like appreciation for Kubrick’s films. It reads like a high-end Da Vinci Code (better yet, think a cinephiles Ready Player One) but is built with both greater complexity and subtlety. Twist after twist, revelation after revelation, the plot becomes a tangled net of intrigue as the characters race toward a showdown where truths and identities are shockingly uncovered. A must read for any Kubrick fan. 
BSR: Do you believe in any conspiracy theories? 
KENT: In terms of Stanley Kubrick conspiracy theories, I believe the theory that holds the most weight is that he had something to do with the Apollo 11 moon landing or at least that something was fishy about it. I wouldn't go as far as to say the whole thing was faked, but as is detailed in the book, let's just say I would not be surprised if what the world saw on television wasn't what actually happened,

Thursday, August 31, 2017

RICHARD ANDERSON R.I.P.


Richard Anderson, who portrayed the obsequious prosecutor Major Saint-Auban in Stanley Kubrick's 1958 anti-war masterpiece Paths of Glory, has passed away at the age of 91. Anderson enjoyed steady work throughout the years before achieving the heights of popularity as fan favorite character Oscar Goldman in two hugely successful mid-70's science-fiction TV series, The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman.

In an interview American Legends conducted with Anderson specifically to discuss Kubrick and Paths of Glory, we learn:
American Legends: Showing the execution of soldiers ran contrary to Hollywood's standard approach to filmmaking.
Richard Anderson: Max Youngstein insisted that the three soldiers not die at the end. He said, "If those guys die, who will go see the movie?" The studio wanted them reprieved at the last minute. In Munich, Stanley sent Youngstein the final script without making the changes Max wanted. He registered the script to show it had been sent--and held his breath. They prayed Max wouldn't call and say that the deal is off. No one at United Artists read the script. When Max was shown a cut of the picture, he turned to Stanley and said: "You were right."

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

A COLLECTION OF KUBRICK VIDEOS

Did you ever wonder what The Shining would have been like if it had been directed by Sam Raimi instead of Kubrick? Well now, thanks to the magic of the Interwebs, you need ponder no longer! Enjoy!


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Here's a beautiful collection of images that inspired Stanley Kubrick's vision for The Shining, as assembled by Candice Drouet.


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Here's a little bit of dance fluff in that weird art installation thing where they re-created the Human Zoo Room from 2001: A Space Odyssey.


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And finally, is Chicago weirdo rapper Danny Brown's latest really "like Kubrick with two bricks"? I'm going to let YOU be the judge of that. Watch his strange new offering, below.

UNDERSTANDING THE CINEMATOGRAPHY OF JOHN ALCOTT


'CLOCKWORK ORANGE' AND 'THE SHINING' AS OTTOMAN MINIATURES


From Dangerous Minds:
Artist Murat Palta has created a fantastic series of works in which he juxtaposes a famous scene from a well-known film with the style of an “Ottoman miniature” painting. The results may alter a viewer’s perception of said films as Palta’s subjects wear expressionless faces in his paintings—despite (for the most part) being stuck in the midst of all kinds of fictional chaos and mayhem.

Hailing from Turkey, Palta’s first cinematic/Ottoman mashup from 2011 combined characters and scenes from Star Wars and received so much attention that he decided to take on a few other memorable movie scenes. Such as the bloodbath at the House of Blue Leaves in Kill Bill, Jack Nicholson’s door-smashing mental breakdown in The Shining and a scene from A Clockwork Orange where the Droogs and Alex DeLarge (played by Malcolm McDowell) put the boot in on a homeless man just for, ahem, kicks. 
I think it’s a pretty safe bet that you’re going to dig Palta’s paintings as much as I did. You can also view them in more detail over at Palta’s “Classic Movies in Minature Style” page on Behance. That said, some might be considered slightly NSFW.

 

KUBRICK NEWS I NEVER GOT AROUND TO PASSING ALONG!


Check out (and be inspired by) Stanley Kubrick's work as a brilliant "boy genius" photographer, thanks to the fine folks at Konbibi! There are some really cool photographs in this collection, some of which I'd never seen before. Fans of Kubrick's early photography really shouldn't miss out on this link!

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Over at MoviePilot.com, James Dunlap presents his "Fan Theory" about Eyes Wide Shut, asking... was it all a dream? By the time you're done reading his exhaustive and entertaining exegesis, you just might end up convinced.

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In this Vulture story about the all the influences on the TV series Legion, we get the following paragraph, sub-titled "Stanley Kubrick":
According to Abraham Riesman’s behind-the-scenes feature, Stanley Kubrick haunted the development of Legion, and Hawley was somewhat obsessed with the the late, great filmmaker. You can see Kubrick’s touches all over Legion — and not just because the facility that’s treating David (Dan Stevens) happens to be named Clockworks Psychiatric Hospital. The “normalization” of David feels similar to the treatment of Alex (Malcolm McDowell) in the second half of A Clockwork Orange, and the orange jumpsuits definitely look like a product of the era. There’s also a sense in Legion that the design is meant to reflect the confused mental state of the protagonist — production designer Michael Wylie told the Daily Beast, “We’re not supposed to know where we are or what year it is” — and using design to reflect a character’s psychology is a very Kubrickian device utilized across several of his films. Hawley has even referred to Legion as existing in a “hybrid A Clockwork Orange/Quadrophenia world.”
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British film website Filmoria polled their employees to find out their favorite directors (and the reasons why), and I was glad to see that one of their female employees chose Stanley!

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This FilmMaker Magazine article by Jim Hemphill points out some intriguing parallels between 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Raquel Welch jiggle-fest One Million Years B.C., declaring, of the latter: “It’s a surprisingly experimental movie in some ways, telling its story of prehistoric man with virtually no dialogue (what dialogue does exist consists of mostly grunts and made up words) and a reliance on a deliberately paced series of impressionistic images that had a clear influence on Stanley Kubrick.” The same column goes on to point out another Kubrick connection, this time to the Frederic Raphael scripted Two For The Road (directed by Stanley Donen). Raphael, notoriously, helped script Eyes Wide Shut.

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Did you know there was a Kubrick connection with The Beatles movie A Hard Day's Night? And it's not that Hobbit thing, either! Check it out for yourself!

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This Alex Sayf Cummings essay for MoviePilot.com asks a very good, salient question: “What is it about Stanley Kubrick that drives some people crazy?” It is a question to which I, myself, will be returning in future blog posts, but in the meantime, I wanted to post this link to Alex's excellent summary of the conspiracy community's latching on to Kubrick and his oeuvre--which has led to such serious projects as the documentary Room 237, as well as to silly fluff like this Oral History of the Faked Moonlanding--to help KubrickU readers get up to date about the current state of affairs in that particular speculative arena.

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Here's a Guardian review of a homosexuality-themed stage production of A Clockwork Orange, which differs significantly from both the Burgess novel and the Kubrick film, and includes at least one Pink Floyd selection to help get the message over.

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I never ran this in February, but on the occasion of Anthony Burgess' 100th birthday, Trainspotting novelist Irvine Welch wrote this beautiful think-piece on the influence A Clockwork Orange had on him and his writing. It begins:
Few writers, whatever the claims made for them by literary critics, ever manage to spawn big cultural moments. One who genuinely did so was Anthony Burgess, with his novel A Clockwork Orange. And, as novelists are often contrary by nature, he was highly ambivalent about this state of affairs. Burgess would disparagingly refer to the book, published in 1962, as a “novella”, regarding it as an inconsequential sliver of his Brobdingnagian canon. He blamed (and there’s really no other term for it) the book’s resonance on the Stanley Kubrick film adaptation, which appeared nine years later. 
My generation was obsessed with this stylistic, inventive affair, a movie that spurned both mainstream Hollywood concerns and European art house affectations to stake out a unique terrain for British independent cinema. Kubrick’s movie was an influence on the Ziggy-era David Bowie, and it was those cool credentials that made me backtrack to the film, which I first saw at a late-night screening several years after its release. As is generally the way of those things, far fewer of us had enjoyed any exposure to the novel. As a writer who has had many of his own books adapted for screen, I’m a little uncomfortable at conceding that I was in this camp.
It's a really good piece. You should read it. Cheers for now!

SF VISIONARY BRIAN ALDISS DEAD AT 92


Visionary British science fiction author Brian Aldiss (OBE), who collaborated with Stanley Kubrick in the never-ending development of the latter's long-gestating film A.I. (Artificial Intelligence), has passed away at the age of 92. From The Register:
Aldiss published an enormous number of science fiction books and short stories – as well as non-fiction work – but is perhaps best known for the Helliconia trilogy and his short story “Supertoys Last All Summer Long”, which was used as the basis for the 2001 film AI Artificial Intelligence
“A friend and drinking companion of Kingsley Amis and correspondent with CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien, Aldiss was a founding member of the Groucho Club in London and a judge on the 1981 Booker Prize,” said his publisher in a statement
“Awarded the Hugo Award for Science Fiction in 1962 and the Nebula Award in 1965, Aldiss's writings were well received by the critics and earned a strong following in the United States and in Britain, as well as being widely translated into foreign languages.” 
Born in 1925, Aldiss began writing stories as a four-year old child, encouraged by his parents. He saw action in Burma during the Second World War and afterwards moved to Oxford and worked in a bookshop. 
He came to a publisher's attention after publishing a fictional tale of life as a bookseller in 1955 that did reasonably well, and was already writing science fiction short stories for magazines. After being commissioned for his first book of short stories, Aldiss began a career which spanned more than half a century and triggered the New Wave movement in British science fiction. 
“I actually think that the great days of science fiction have perhaps passed now,” he told Desert Island Discs in 2007. “But the fact is science fiction gave me an umbrella, and it gave me endless friends who are still my friends. I would never knock science fiction, I think it's splendid.”
Aldiss' short fiction is quite wonderful, and widely collected. I urge any Kubrick fan to read his work. Furthermore, for those of you with more time on your hands, the Helliconia series is well worth the effort.

THE DIRECTORS SERIES: A THREE HOUR VIDEO ESSAY ON KUBRICK'S WORK



Tuesday, June 27, 2017

NEW CURT MANOR VIDEO FEATURES KUBRICKEAN AESTHETIC


Director Samuel Bright wishes to share with Kubrick U's readers the video he recently directed for Australian musician Curt Manor's song "Adelphi Hotel Nightmare", which is heavily influenced by The Shining in particular, and by the Kubrickean aesthetic in general.

We think it's pretty nifty, and as filmmakers ourselves, we find the fact that it cost under five grand to be all kinds of shocking. For a hi-rez version, check out the Vimeo version.

Friday, June 16, 2017

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

CLOCKWORK ORANGE BUBBLEGUM CARDS!

Over at Dangerous Minds, they always manage to dig up the coolest stuff. And they're big Kubrick nuts, too, which is great for us! Because that means when they find mind-bending creations like this incredible collection of hauntologically perfect bubblegum trading cards for Clockwork Orange, they just can't help but share with the rest of us! Here's the story of the cards as told by Bubblegum Fink, the creator of the now defunct art blog from whence they first emerged...
A Clockwork Orange is another set of trading cards, like The Wicker Man, that never could have existed at the time the film was released. But now, I would rush out to buy a box. Wouldn’t you? I’m happy with the card design, but less so with the Clockwork Orange font which I wish had been a little sharper. To do it over again, I’d just get rid of it. Of course, the cards represent a sort of edited-for-television version of the film, and it’s also the shortest set I’ve done at only 33 cards.
Click through to the Dangerous Minds story, linked above, for more information, more cards, and for that Wicker Man set I'm sure you're all dying to check out!

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

KUBRICK AND KIRBY ~ THE 2001 COMICS CONNECTION!


Thanks to the fine folks at Dangerous Minds for hipping me to this video that explores comics art titan Jack Kirby's decade-long obsession for his passion project, a comic book adaptation and elaboration upon Clarke/Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey

Sunday, March 19, 2017

COOL KUBRICK-RELATED VIDEO SHOWCASE!

Today, I'd like to present you with a bunch of interesting Kubrick-related videos, starting with this rare 1967 trailer for 2001: A Space Odyssey that incorporates some Douglas Trumbull test footage into the mix. Thanks to The Playlist for making me aware of this one!

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AV Club presents this intriguing mashup by Richard Vezina, which combines the work of Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch. Called "Blue Shining", it contains some real nightmare fuel, superimposing a bunch of different Lynch movie and TV show scenes into a new context via The Shining.

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MovieMaker.com has a page featuring three Kubrick "Supercuts" covering three of the master's preferred techniques: The Kubrick Gaze, One-Point Perspective, and Red. They're all from Vimeo, and they're all pretty short, and they're all related, so I'll just leave this link here instead of embedding three more videos into this already crowded blog post.
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And finally for today, I bring you a psychedelic ride through some dude's crazy Hot Wheels track set-up, using a model-mounted GoPro camera. It's called Hot Wheels Nightmare, and it's guaranteed to remind you of the "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite" sequence in 2001!

KUBRICK INSPIRED MUSIC AND VIDEOS

Shot in Christchurch's Commodore Hotel, the eerie video for Lawrence Arabia's "The Palest of Them All" harks back to Kubrick's landmark films The Shining and 2001: A Space Odyssey, in both aesthetic and tone. Arabia (aka James Milne) elaborated on the clip's conception in a statement, which may be read at Under The Radar's music blog. Here's the video:


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In some circles, the release of Pleasurekraft's new techno offering, Maskara, is apparently cause for some amount of rejoicing. Having absolutely no patience for this genre of music in general, I think I'll let Will McCarthy's commentary from the Dancing Astronaut website serve as an introduction of sorts:
Pleasurekraft’s darker inclinations are reiterated in their forthcoming Maskara EP, which is slated for a February 24 release on their own Kraftek label. Maskara consists of two tracks – the titular single and the Roberto Capuano-assisted “Penetrator.” Sharp-eared cinephiles may note Stanley Kubrick’s strong influence on the release. For “Maskara,” Pleasurekraft make use of Jocelyn Pook’s “Masked Ball,” which was crafted for a pivotal scene in Kubrick’s 1999 film, Eyes Wide Shut. Throughout the track, the duo transmogrify the composer’s Gregorian-inspired droning chants into a cerebral, club-germane format. Indeed, this deep, dark techno homage to “Masked Ball” would be a suitable soundtrack for an analogous iconic film today. Pleasurekraft’s use of the Kubrickian score comes just after their rebranding of the Kraftek logo to reflect imagery from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Sounds intriguing, yes? You can listen to the track right here on Kubrick U:


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To make the video for her latest song, "Thieves", Thayer Sarrano (the self-described New Queen of Shoegaze) collaborated with photographer/videographer Curtis Wayne Millard, who said of the project: “I would shoot these time-lapses and long-exposure images in nature. Take a sunset, rotate it and superimpose it on a long exposure of a star field to recreate the cosmos. Like most of my peers, I am highly inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and Terrence Malick. To me, the song is very cinematic, so I knew right away that I wanted to make a tone poem of sorts in that same spirit.”

Find out more about both artists' work in this Huffington Post piece. And here's the video:


SUE LYON: THEN AND THEN AND NOW

I recently ran across this brief interview with the unforgettable Sue Lyon, titular star of Kubrick's version of Nabokov's novel Lolita, conducted in Europe during an international roadshow tour for the movie, which would go on to become a worldwide box office hit. Something I learned from this exchange is that Lyon at one time had a seven year contract with Harris-Kubrick Productions.


This video set me off in search of more recent interviews, and I came across this one, titled "In Search of Lolita", conducted with a French TV channel in 1987, by which time Lyon hadn't made a film since Lewis Teague's Alligator, seven years previous. Her memories of James Mason are particularly warm and lovely. Not so her experience with the reporter who once asked if her brother had committed suicide because she'd performed in such a controversial film.


And... that's it, unfortunately. The above video appears to be the most recent video of Sue Lyon available, and she's sworn off interviews entirely, whether on video or in print. The most recent photograph I could find of her is a paparazzi shot from 2010, dug up by Stumptown Blogger.


The story attached to this video is not a happy one, unfortunately. I certainly hope that she's found some measure of peace and contentment.

KICKSTARTER FOR KUBRICK-INSPIRED "BLACK HOLES"


There are EIGHT DAYS LEFT to help Noodles Studio achieve their dream of bringing to market their beautifully animated adult-oriented space comedy series BLACK HOLES, which is the story of a Mars-bound astronaut teamed up with a sentient melon who drives him to the brink of insanity.

With a goal of $100,000, they're close to getting there, with nearly $80,000 already pledged! And with Kubrick references aplenty, I figure there should be at least a few fans of Stanley's work who would be willing to pony up a couple bucks to see this thing come to fruition (no pun intended)... and to score the nifty rewards!

Here's a 12 minute Proof of Concept video to whet the appetite, where the animators show off their substantial chops:


Tell you what... if I hadn't already exhausted my monthly Kickstarter budget, I'd be all over this one like stink on dookie. Some of the rewards are downright fantastic. And I'm not being paid to write this, nor do I know the people involved. I'm just impressed and delighted by the results of their obviously deep obsession with artistic perfection.

So come on, my fellow Kubrick nuts! Click on over to Kickstarter and check out this delightful little confection that I'm pretty sure would have put a big ol' smile on Stanley's face. And while you're there, if the spirit (or the promise of a beautiful 3D-printed character sculpt) should move you... help them reach their goal!

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

S IS FOR STANLEY

I still haven't seen it yet, but I figured I might as well post a little something about Italian director Alex Infascelli's recently released documentary S is For Stanley, which takes a look at our favorite iconic filmmaker through the eyes of the man who was his devoted driver and manservant for 30 long years, Emilio D'Alessandro.

So, to begin with, here's the English language trailer:


Pretty cool, right? Sure makes me want to see it!

Our first review comes from the Village Voice, and it's by their new lead cinema critic (and former alt.movies.kubrick netizen!) Bilge Ebiri. His review is essential reading for any Kubrick fan, particularly considering it was written by perhaps the premiere Kubrick admirer currently working in the mainstream entertainment media. It begins:
It isn't every day that you're asked to drive a giant dick across London. But for Emilio D'Alessandro, a young Italian émigré, erstwhile race-car driver, and full-time cabbie, it was just another job: It was December of 1970, a blizzard was on, nobody else was around, and the object — a massive sculpture of a phallus — had to be delivered quickly to a company called Hawk Films on the other side of town. Speedy, careful, and prompt, D'Alessandro got it there safely and on time. The recipient, impressed, offered him a regular job. And that's how Emilio D'Alessandro became Stanley Kubrick's personal chauffeur. 
He was, in truth, more than that.
This is, of course, an understatement. A wonderful part of Ebiri's essay is his eye for how the smallest details from the documentary can be spun out into fairly grand ideas about what lay behind Kubrick's work. It's a positive review, but I would only have expected otherwise from Ebiri if the film had been a hatchet job, which it obviously isn't.

Daniel Eagan's review for Film Journal isn't quite so positive, nor is it half as interesting. Calling the film "a low-key effort geared towards cultists", his review concludes on the following note:
It will take a dedicated Kubrick completist to find inspiration in the director's fondness for pets, bad driving habits and poor typing. S Is for Stanley manages the difficult feat of circling around both of its subjects without saying much interesting about either of them.
Glenn Kenny's New York Times review sits happily between Ebiri's enthusiasm and Eagan's dismissive snark. He concludes his short review indicating that, "for Kubrick enthusiasts, this picture will provide a fun and sometimes moving fix."

It is also perhaps worth noting that all three reviews begin with the story of Emilio's delivery of the smooth white wobbling phallus sculpture/murder weapon from Clockwork Orange; obviously a memorable moment from the doc!

Finally, for our Italian speaking friends, here's an interview with the film's director, Alex Infascelli:

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

KUBRICK REMEMBERED: A BEAUTIFUL NEW KUBRICK DOC

This lovely documentary focuses mostly on Stanley's family life, particularly on his life-long love affair with Christiane. It's quite wonderful, on many levels. A great glimpse into the man's soul.

Friday, February 24, 2017

KUBRICK NEWS IN BRIEF ~ FEB 25, 2017


How awesome do NASA's new tailored Starliner astronaut suits look, right?! Designed by Boeing, to be worn by astronauts going to and from the International Space Station on their new Starliner transport ship beginning in 2018, i09 wasn't kidding around when they said the suits were "straight out of 2001: A Space Odyssey"! And they're not just stylish... they'll keep you alive! New features include an upgraded helmet, which is incorporated into the spacesuit, touchscreen-sensitive gloves, and built-in ventilation. Think they'll come in a size XXXXXXL?
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Feast your eyes on this custom drum kit based on the carpet patterns in The Shining!

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If any of you Kubrick fanatics out there have some spare change burning a hole in your pockets, the man's French vacation house in the Dordogne valley, about five hours south of Paris, has been put up for sale at an eminently reasonable $1.6 million. Photos and other details are available at the link. If you're reading this and you do end up buying it, kindly invite me over, as I speak the language and am a pretty decent cook, and I've been told I'm not too bad of a conversationalist, to boot!

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Last month, Michael Moorcock--another man whose work I greatly admire--wrote an intriguing essay about Kubrick's relationship with Arthur C. Clark for the New Statesman. Entitled "The Odd Couple of Science Fiction", the piece gained some notoriety on social media over a passing mention about Clark being "brought to tears" at the film's premiere over some of the changes Kubrick had made to the story without telling him. Of course, in context, this betrayal comes across as a lot less dramatic than the online click-hunters would have us believe. Anyway, it's a great remembrance that every fan of both Clark and Kubrick owes it to themselves to read. It's full of great insights and interesting moments, and Moorcock even addresses the sordid rumors about Clark's sexual proclivities in as decisive and definitive a manner possible at this late (i.e. posthumous) date. There is one moment that Moorcock relates that I'd like to share with you all, and it comes from the essay's conclusion:
I have one other memory of that visit to the 2001 set. After being given a tour of the studio by the MGM publicist, I was led towards Kubrick's office just as the director entered the main building. I prepared to meet the man who had contacted me a year or so earlier. I had many questions. Perhaps he would confirm some of my guesses.
Kubrick's eyes went straight to me and did not leave me as he spoke brusquely to the publicist.
"Get these people off the set," he said.
We were never face to face again.
Not very flattering to Stanley, for sure, but the authenticity of this account gives credence to everything that comes before.

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A short film, entitled Kubrick by Candlelight, aims to recreate the filming of Kubrick's Barry Lyndon in Ireland. Here's the film's Kickstarter, where you can learn more about the project. In this interview with the Irish Film and Television Network, director David O'Reilly--whose day job involves location scouting for such A-list projects as Star Wars: Rogue One--discusses all of the complexities and challenges of filming the project in the Irish midlands, as well as the lengths he and his crew went in order to be as true as possible to the source material. Finally, though there isn't much here of interest to Kubrick fans, here's a video of cast member Al Foran having fun impersonating various celebrities while in full costume and makeup:


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In this interview with the UK Independent, UNKLE's James Lavelle reminisces about his acclaimed project from last year, Daydreaming with... Stanley Kubrick, which saw more than 60 artists participate in a celebration of Kubrick's work, held at Somerset House. He also discusses his latest venture, Daydreaming with UNKLE presents... THE ROAD: SOHO. It looks pretty interesting. All my UK peeps, go check it out!
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Okay, so I've finally seen Passengers, Morten Tyldum's morally problematic deep space romance flick, and I have to say, I kinda dug it. And not because of the much ballyhoo'd Kubrick references, which, to be honest, pretty much boiled down to just the somewhat ghostly robot bartender in the vast ship's Shining-like ballroom bar. In this interview with Deadline Hollywood, however, Passengers sound editor Will Files explains how Kubrick inspired both he and the director:
I’m a big fan of Stanley Kubrick, and as it turns out, Morten is also a big fan. I’ve always liked the way Kubrick uses sound, as well as the image. He tends to have a sparse soundtrack—they tend to not be very cluttered— so we really wanted to try to use that, not maybe as a point of reference for how the actual sounds would sound, but in terms of the approach to the sound, keeping it elegant in its simplicity. We wanted everything to sound effortless, and like it was really there. A real sense of reality. As opposed to a film like Star Wars, which is all about being stylized for the point of having fun, this movie was all about being stylized for the point of giving the audience a certain feeling about this ship. We wanted this ship to really have a character.
So there you go. Personally, I thought Passengers was a somewhat intriguing story surrounded by an absolutely fantastic sensory spectacle, making it a very fitting second half of a double feature movie night alongside Prometheus. You can use the former to come down from the grisly exhaustion brought on by the latter, and also pretend that they take place in the same fictional universe!

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Here's a great video of Kubrick nut Peter Jackson telling the story about how fellow Kubrick fanatic Adam Savage helped him to understand just exactly how awesome his HAL-9000 prop from 2001 really was. This Nerdist article goes into a bit more detail.


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Guess which films take the Number One and Number Two spots on this Cheat Sheet list of authors who hated the movies made from their books? I'll give you two hints: One didn't like the fact that the last chapter was left out of the movie, and the other has been whining about it to whoever will listen for the better part of
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In this Telegraph UK account, Andrew Birkin describes going from being Stanley Kubrick's teaboy to being one his most trusted assistants. 
Kubrick had a horror of flying, so 2001 was made at MGM studios in Borehamwood. I was 19 when I started work as a runner. I was soon barred from the set because I got so distracted: the production office would send me to get 20 boxes of envelopes from the store and I would pass the set and be totally mesmerised and not come back for hours.
One night, Kubrick was having a meeting about the Dawn of Man sequence and I was on hand to supply cups of tea. Kubrick said, ‘Gee, fellas, I can’t believe there isn’t a desert in England.’ The art department said there wasn’t, but I said, ‘I know where there’s one.’
And Kubrick said, ‘Who are you?’ ‘I’m the tea boy; here’s your cup of tea, sir.’ I vaguely remembered seeing a picture of Formby Sands in an old geography book. The next day they sent me off to photograph it with a Polaroid. 
Unfortunately the picture in the book had been taken 40 years earlier when it was all sand and no trees – but if you ducked down low enough and avoided the nuclear reactor in one direction and the high-rise flats in another, it could still arguably look like a desert. 
Somebody told me to bump up the photos with production ideas, so I stayed up all night in a Liverpool hotel, then caught the milk train back to the studio, put the lot on Kubrick’s desk – and then dashed back up to Liverpool because I wanted it to look like a miracle.

And indeed at 11am I got a phone call: ‘Come back to the studio – we’re getting you a union ticket [almost impossible to get at that time], and Stanley has doubled your pay.’ I arrived back and was summoned into the conference room. 
There were the art department, looking sheepish, and Kubrick, who was really enjoying himself. ‘Hi,’ he said. ‘Andrew? Is that your name?’ Then he asked the art department why they’d spent £40,000 and many months looking for a desert when the tea boy had come up with one in 24 hours at a total cost of £10, six shillings and eight pence.
Birkin went on to a very successful, Kubrick-influenced career as a producer, writer and sometime director. Among his films, the most Kubrickean are The Burning Secret and Cement Garden, both of which he directed, and Perfume, which he co-wrote.  Kubrick had expressed interest in filming both The Burning Secret, based on a story by Stefan Zweig, and Perfume, based on the novel by Patrick Suskind.
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Speaking of long lost Kubrick stuff, Cinephilia And Beyond brings us an interview with Kubrick from 1980, conducted by Vincente Molina Foix, and reprinted for the first time ever in that must-have Taschen tome, The Kubrick Archives. Purchase from the link!


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Goddamnit, here's yet another book I'm going to have to pick up, read, and write a review for: Kubrick's Game, which the linked i09.com review compares favorably to Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and Ernie Cline's Ready Player One. Compounding my misery over this is the fact that I, myself, have long wanted to tackle such a project. Thanks, procrastination--and also, most likely, a lack of the necessary talent and know-how--for ruining yet another life goal.

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In this Cumberland Pennsylvania Sentinel "Senior Moment" op-ed piece, William Parkinson describes the time he and his navy shipmates watched Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb for the first time, the year it was released:
The audience was aghast. Moviegoers packing the theater at the U.S. Naval Facilities in Yokosuka, Japan, were literally stunned as Peter Sellers, playing the mentally deranged and physically crippled Dr. Strangelove, rose from his wheelchair to proclaim the benefits of global destruction — to the president of the United States — and shouting, “Mein Führer! I can walk!” There followed a cascade of nuclear explosions that blew the world to bits. 
That evening in 1964, the crowd that slowly left the theater was strangely silent; obviously disturbed by what they had witnessed on the screen. They had expected a comedy, of sorts, but coming less than a year after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the growing concern — and involvement — in the war in Vietnam and increasing sabre rattling by the Soviet Union, the sailors, Marines and their families wandering into that night more than half a century ago had been shaken. 
Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” played differently with a military and naval audience than it did with the critics back in the states or with the hometown movie house crowd. Those of us then in uniform had lived for years with the harshest of realities — that things could vanish in a nuclear instant. Such were the facts of the Cold War.
The rest of it is really great, too, comparing Kubrick's terrifyingly educational satiric take on the the technocratic Powers That Be to today's far more (apparently) chaotic situation, in the hope of finding either some answers, or a direction in which to look for them. The search goes on.
 


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And finally for today's edition of the KNIB's, I present 2001's HAL-9000 and Her's Samantha, having an interesting chat about love, consciousness, and human nature. Enjoy!